


Trade Your Heroes For Ghosts

by lantia4ever



Series: Of Overqualified Hands & Pi Figures (IronStrange) [10]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Cloak of Levitation (Marvel), Cloakie is a good bro, Cloakie is still no in characters, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels, Hugs, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Peter Parker is too precious for the MCU, Post-Avengers 4, Post-Infinity War, Rhodey is the best bro, Stephen needs a hug too, Supremefamily, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony patched it up, Trust Issues, Wong is high-key the president of the IronStrange club, au i guess, friendly neighborhood spiderman saves the ship, hugs for everyone, or most of it, resolving everything, that's unacceptable, time for some fluff now?, who do I call about this, with memes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-14 20:38:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16048133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lantia4ever/pseuds/lantia4ever
Summary: Thanos might be defeated and half of the universe saved but Tony Stark still has one more battle to fight. There will always be one more battle. And he's just so tired of fighting.Especially since Stephen Strange is supposed to be the foe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> So...after THAT happened, let's just say I fell into an angst-hole of my own making that was really hard to climb back up from :'D But I'm crossing all my fingers hoping that the climb - and the reward waiting on top of it - will bring you all satisfaction in this here continuation of the series! <3
> 
> The mystery POV is Tony Stark of course! :3 We haven't really got a chance to see things from his perspective yet, so here we go, right in the middle of the big shitstorm the previous part left us in :'D Couldn't have picked a better time if I tried :D
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> The title is from Pink Floyd's 'Wish you were here' (my not so secret favorite of theirs ^^)

“How long are you going to keep this up?” Bruce asks, giving Tony one of those half annoyed, half understanding looks.

He returns it with as much defiance as there’s left of it in his body and focuses back on the infuriating engine project he’s working on. “Until it’s finished.”

“I’m not talking about the project.”

Of course he’s not talking about the project. Tony knows he’s not talking about it but since when has he ever passed on the opportunity to avoid the real subject?

“You _know_ that’s not what I’m talking about,” Bruce adds as if reading his mind and folds his hands, abandoning his own lab work on the StarkPad.

“Busteeeed,” he mumbles and turns away from Bruce’s inquisitive gaze.

Bruce sighs behind him and rolls on the chair across the lab to the refreshment table, pouring himself what Tony guesses is the millionth coffee this week. “Do we need to have a talk? _Again_?” he continues, rolling back to his workplace like the science rebel he is.

Walking is for sissies ever since rolling chairs were invented.

“What for?” Tony shrugs, pretending to be very busy with this nonsensical blueprint he brings up.

“Never mind,” he answers eventually, clearly giving up the interrogation.

That was quick. Bruce doesn’t usually get off his back that easily. He takes a breath and gets ready to comment on it but for once his brain to mouth filter works properly and stops him.

Letting the elephant in the room dormant is for the best. Tony is the master of leaving all sorts of elephants in the room dormant and this one better be comatose as far as he’s concerned.

“Actually? No,” Bruce speaks up just then and Tony can’t stop the groan from escaping his lips. “You don’t get to do this. Not again,” he rolls around the workbenches to position himself right next to Tony, who greets him with a very pointed glare.

“Do what, exactly?”

“Avoid the subject? Ignore the situation? Pretend that – “

“Avoid _what_ subject? Ignore _what_ situation? There’s no situation to ignore,” he shrugs, fiddling with the blueprint. Maybe he should have kept the lockdown extended on Bruce too.

But he didn’t want to have a Hulk-shaped hole in his lab’s walls.

“Oh really? Look,” he reaches out and snaps the holo blueprint off.

“Heeeey! I was working on that!”

“No you weren’t. Tony…I know I haven’t been here for a whi… _a long while_ and I’m sorry. I really am!”

“We’ve been over this. You don’t hav - ”

“Well obviously your brain has troubles understanding it! As genius as it is. I wasn’t here before but I am here _now_ and I’m not going anywhere. Hulk isn’t going anywhere either by the way, he likes it in here all of a sudden. Probably has something to do with how many people on this very base he would like to smash into the concrete but don’t worry, I won’t let him do that. _Yet_.”

Tony lets a tiny smirk slip through his annoyed façade. He always liked the Hulk…and after seeing a footage of him chasing the Roguevengers around the Compound’s grounds to the sound of the Benny Hill music – courtesy of FRIDAY’s impeccable video editing abilities – he likes him _even more_.

Bruce let the green guy have his fun for a while before calming down and if Tony expected the Rogues to be troublesome while their case is being handled by the army of lawyers he stuck on it, well…they are tame as ever after that little workout.

 _That and the very poignant threat coming from the Sorcerer Supreme_ , his traitorous brain supplies. Courtesy of FRIDAY as well.

“But I might let him shake some sense into _you_ if you’re going to continue going down this road.”

“Down this road? Now I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“They do say ignorance is bliss but I don’t consider you this petty or stupid to actually follow that saying, not where Strange is concerned.”

 _Nope. Nopenopenope. Noppity nope_. The ‘S’ word is his queue to go back to work or better yet, shoot himself off to space where the Hulk can’t find him. “I’m busy,” he turns the blueprint back on only for Bruce to switch it off the instant. “Super duper busy,” he tries again like the three year old he is and Bruce just shuts it down again.

His Science Bro’s patience is admirable but so not convenient right now. It would be way easier dealing with someone who a) doesn’t know him and b) gets annoyed by his antics quickly and just leaves him alone.

“You haven’t been busy for weeks now. That engine project you’ve got going is one step away from being finished – and that one step is pressing Enter and sending it to R&D to get it ready to be built so stop bullshitting me.”

Oh no. Bruce playing the language card is never good.

“Talk to me, Tony.”

Tony snaps his gaze away from the earnest eyes of his friend and grits his teeth, trying hard not to crumble into million pieces right there and then.

_“Talk to me, man! We’ll sort it out, you and me. Like we always do, yeah?”_

_Talk to me_. So easily said. Not so easily done. Only Rhodey could make it seem that way. Easily said and easily done. If he were here he wou – but he’s _not_ here. He’s not here. He’s not _anywhere_. So what’s the _point_?!

“Talk to you? Why? Been there, tried that…and you fell asleep on me. So what gives? Is it your nap time right now or something? Need me to lull you to sleep with another tragic tale of my fucking life?!”

It’s completely uncalled for and the insta-regret likely shows on his face the moment those words leave his mouth because Bruce doesn’t look offended or even angry – as if he ever does – just _more_ guilty. As if Bruce has anything to feel guilty about; that’s supposed to be Tony’s job!

So much for his mouth to brain filter working today.

“I deserved that,” Bruce nods and the words almost erase Tony’s brain. Say _what_?! “That was a bit not good of me…and by bit I mean huge. But the jet lag and the migraine and…anyway! Bad manners, I know. I’m sorry…I’m really not good with these things am I? Probably explains why I failed that doctorate in psychology. Too messed up to get it right. But I swear I’m not sleepy this time around and I most definitely do care about what you have to say. That…that never changed, okay?”

Being angry with Rogers is one thing. Being angry with the S word is one thing, too. One does not simply stay angry at Bruce though. That would be too much anger in the room anyway.

“What am I supposed to say?” he blurts out, quiet and defeated. “That I’m having the shittiest time of my life and have no idea what to do about it? Yeah well, I thought that was pretty obvious…I tend to have the shittiest time of my life very often and it always goes kinda like _this_. Me locking myself away in the lab, ignoring the problems, ignoring the solutions, ignoring everything and everyone…who can’t bulldoze through reinforced concrete. Like you…or Pepper.”

 _Or Rhodey_.

“Or Rhodey. Yeah. I know.”

Okay, now he’s getting suspicious. Then again, he’s seen weirder shit than the Hulk suddenly gaining mind-reading abilities would be.

“And I mean it – I _know_. About this part. That’s not what I’m trying to decipher here. Because I’m pretty sure Strange doesn’t have to bulldoze through walls.”

“Wh – how is this about….how is this about Strange?!”

Bruce actually chuckles, shaking his head a little. “Really? Thanos bit the dust _months_ ago. And you’re mourning your best friend – of course – so here you are doing your usual routine but _really_? Of all the people in your life ever, are you seriously going to ignore _him_? _Now_?”

He shrugs, nodding rapidly. “Yeah. Why not?”

“ _Why not_?” his eyebrows all but leave the atmosphere at that. “Okay, no. You know what? I might have been away through all that fun stuff of the past two years and then some and I’m still having the worst case of a black out ever, remembering absolutely nothing about what the hell Hulk was doing? But other than that, my brain and memory is quite alright, thank you very much.”

“Good for you.”

“With that said,” he raises a finger, stopping Tony from going on another ramble, “I should probably gently remind you that Doctor Stephen Strange is no stranger to me.”

Tony cringes – both at the pun that will just never stop being cringy and at hearing the entirety of the man’s name. “So what? You met at a gala before, big deal.”

“No, Tony. No no no no no. I met _you_ , remember? Shortly before the whole mess in New York? And then we went on a scientific rampage for a couple months at the Tower together? Remember that?”

He smiles because yes, he does remember that. “Good times.”

“I agree. Had to get used to…well… _you_. But few sleepless nights of inventing frenzy and I was completely on board. You know what I remember the most?”

“My awesome ideas bordering on the level of out-of-this-world genius?” he tries with a grin.

“Yes. That and your endless rambling about random stuff.”

“I do that a lot, yes.”

“Only on week two I realized it wasn’t as random as I thought because one person seemed to appear in them way too often to be just a coincidence. I’m not sure if you were aware of it back then, but Doctor Strange was your favorite rambling material.”

Tony scoffs, recalling no such thing of course. “That’s ridiculous.”

“It is isn’t it? I thought so too. It’s been a while since I heard a teenager gush about their crush so it took me some time to recognize it.”

“I did _not_ \- ”

“You _gushed_ about him so bad it’s not even funny, Tony. First it were just off-handed comments about the funny doctor that patched you up after the battle. When your mood was a bit on the edge, instead of a funny doctor it was ‘that asshole with an ego bigger than mine’ or ‘that annoying, cocky prick at the ER’.”

Okay…he _might_ have said that. But that was totally it.

“And _then_ …oh then you moved to the straight up gushing because I vividly remember your one hour monologue about the guy’s cheekbones – that might have actually been a poem or a serenade, I couldn’t really tell. Let’s not forget his eyes, you had a big thing for those too. And when you were particularly deep into the rambling, you went on about his _hands_ and that’s where I usually told JARVIS to turn the music volume up because the things you said about his hands could make E. L. James go fifty shades of red, okay?”

Tony stares at him, also getting some very vivid flashbacks of those particular discussions. Or rather monologues. Definitely not poems, nope. Hell no.

“At the end there, it made me google the guy if only to make sure he’s even real. You spoke about him like he’s some ethereal being sent from the shiniest of dimensions to grace humanity with its presence so you can’t blame me for that. Then you invited me to that gala that I really didn’t want to attend and met him there, all flesh and bones, not ethereal at all and yeah. I could tell why you’d be all smitten with a guy like that. It was like meeting _you_ all over again.”

He glares at him for that, which only breaks the smirk Bruce has probably been holding back this whole time free.

“I’m willing to bet that if I hadn’t messaged you about him being there, you wouldn’t have shown up at all! You would have had totally ditched me in there but the second I wrote ‘met Doctor Strange in here a minute ago’, you were taking the stairs five at a time to your room because elevator is too slow and you needed to get dressed and presentable stat!”

Tony slowly inhales, pushing away the memories of that night. Feels like so long ago…he can’t even lie and say he doesn’t even remember. He remembers, alright? And it has nothing to do with that whole commotion with a gun and all.

Nope. The image of one Stephen Strange MD all dressed up in a suit haunted his wildest dreams for quite a while after that.

Everything was so different back then. _They_ were different.

“What’s your point?” he mumbles, breathing out a tired sigh. “So I had a crush. Had a lot of those. That stuff in the tabloids you might have read? All true.”

“Sure, Tony. If that’s what you want the world to believe. Can’t fool me though. Couldn’t do it back then and you can’t fool me now, okay? Things might have changed since then…I mean you’re more badass than ever and he went from a doctor to a wizard. A _wizard_! The Avengers broke up…yet the team also gained new members. Definitely better additions than Maximoff if you ask me but I might be just biased. Or so everybody keeps telling me and you know what? Screw them. Anyway…a lot has changed, obviously. But you and him? That thing you had going in there? That’s still there and you can tell me it’s not till you’re blue in the face and till I’m green in the face but you’ll be only fooling yourself.”

Yes. And he prefers it that way. Fooling himself into thinking this is it, that’s all she wrote, drop the curtain, the end.

“You’re angry – yes you are,” Bruce points out, stopping Tony’s argument. “I’m a bit of an expert when it comes to angry. I get it. I even know why you would be angry but…”

“But what? What would you have me do? Forget everything that happened?! Newsflash! I can’t! I will never be able to forget it, okay?!”

“I know.”

“It will be right there, clear as day on my mind for the rest of my days! Which is funny because I didn’t expect to have many of those left! You know why? Because ever since Ultron, my worst nightmare was _staying alive_. While you’re all dead!”

“We’re not all dead, Tony.”

“ _Rhodey’s_ dead!” he yells at this point, his voice ringing through the room. “He didn’t have to die! He could have lived, he could have been right here with you now - ”

“Telling me the exact same thing you are about to!” Bruce actually yells over him. “That _you_ didn’t have to die, that _he_ could have saved you, that _he_ should be dead!”

Tony reels back, trying to catch his breath and stop the onset of fresh tears spilling out.

“Tony…Rhodey made that decision himself. You can blame yourself for not acting faster, you can blame Rogers for distracting you with a lecture, you may blame Thanos for starting this whole mess and you can even blame Strange for setting you down this path in the first place but at the end of the day, none of that blame will make you feel any better. It’s not going to bring Rhodey back all of a sudden. It’s not going to turn back time and change what happened. Rhodey made that decision and he knew what it would do to you but he also knew what it would do to half of the universe and Thanos on top of it. He pissed that purple grape off so bad, come on! Remember his face when you waved the gauntlet with all the stones on it in his face?! Rhodey would have framed that picture and laughed his ass off about it from that moment on forever, that’s how good it was! And then half of the freaking universe came back to life! Half of the…I can’t even grasp the extent of that, Tony. I can’t and I have all those doctorates…and they’re all useless,” he sighs, wheeling a bit closer to Tony.

He flinches away from the hand that lands on his forearm and can’t even be bothered by the stream of tears now running free down his face.

“Rhodey saved everyone. _Half of the universe sort of everyone_. And you can sit here wishing he didn’t have to die to do it, that nobody had to die to do it and if so then of course it should have been you…but Rhodey did it. He saved so many lives it’s unfathomable. He saved yours too. So you moping about like this, blaming everyone and everything while pushing us all away isn’t really doing his sacrifice justice is it?”

“Don’t..that’s…,” he stutters, actual seething anger rising up in his guts.

“Uncalled for? Maybe. But Rhodey? The Rhodey I remember would be completely done with your bullshit right about now.”

That’s true. Rhodey would be switching on Defcon five at this point. He would have put a stop to Tony’s tantrum weeks ago actually, dragging him kicking and screaming to the Sanctum and locking him up in there.

“And then there’s this thing,” Bruce nods at something behind him just as the Cloak sneaks around Tony’s shoulders. “You spent a week patching it up…instead of burning it or throwing it down the garbage disposal…just saying. In case you’re wondering why nobody will buy your story of how angry and forever blissfully ignorant you are with Strange. That and the fact you have FRIDAY monitoring the Sanctum at all times, you read Wong’s weekly updates and you let Peter hang out in there all the time.”

Tony sniffles, composing himself the best he can. “First off, the Cloak is my friend and he’s the only reason I kept some sanity after Titan so I’m not ever throwing it down the anything. And you can’t burn him because he’s too badass – just a fun fact. So of course I patched him up, that’s got nothing to do with…with Strange _at all_.”

“Sure.”

“It doesn’t!” Not…entirely at least. “And FRIDAY keeping an eye on the Sanctum is purely because of security reasons.” Kind of. “My correspondence with Wong is completely professional and it’s not like I can tell Peter where he can hang out in his free time and where he can’t.” He could tell him, but the spiderling wouldn’t listen anyway.

“If he wanted to hang out with Rogers, you’d employ your suit, FRIDAY, Happy and your puppy dog eyes just to stop him, don’t even try arguing with that.”

“Because that’s a completely different case!”

“Exactly,” Bruce smiles and stubbornly holds Tony’s gaze until he sees the realization drop. “Just…go and talk to him, Tony. Please? You’re both the same when it comes to stuff like this so if you don’t talk it out, you’re both capable of dragging this…this…whatever this horrid state is for _years_ and that just won’t do. Especially since Harley introduced me to that ridiculous mat…uhm, never mind. Forget I said anything.”

Even though he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol for a long time now, Tony suddenly feels like sobering up.

“Oh. You mean…that _ridiculous matchmaking mission_ on top of the equally ridiculous betting pool on who catches us making out first? That Wong bet his lifesavings on?” he asks, somehow keeping a straight face. Mostly because he could cry some more just then…and laugh while he’s at it, too.

“You know about that?” Bruce’s smile freezes and his expression melts into its usual state of awkwardness.

Oh he knows. And particularly remembers the last time he’s been reminded of it. It was just a quick little moment. Eerie and felt more like a dream than something real.

But it was real.

For just a moment – a last moment – as he snapped half of the universe back into existence, there he was. There they were.

 

_“Did you do it?” Rhodey asked him, a tiny smile gracing his lips._

_“Yes.”_

_“I knew you would. That purple bitch ain’t got shit on us,” he grinned. “The dynamic duo – never fails!”_

_Tony laughed despite himself, the amusement soon fading. “It wasn’t worth it.”_

_“Dude. Did you beat his ass or not?”_

_“We did.”_

_“Is half of the universe alive again or not?”_

_“It is.”_

_“Then hell yeah, this was so worth it! Anthony Edward Stank!” he raised a warning finger when Tony tried speaking, glaring at him yet still keeping the grin spread wide. “This…this ain’t too bad. Could have been worse. A lot worse.”_

_“How?”_

_“I could have died few years from now…from sheer boredom because your stupid-ass would decide to sacrifice itself instead and then what?! Who would annoy the hell out of my superiors at the Air Force?! Not to mention Ross, nobody can get him to pop a vein faster than you! Do you have any idea what kind of a boring world we’d all have to live in while you’d be chillin’ here in the Soul world with soul martinis and soul hookers? Naaaah, I’ll do that instead, thank you very much. My turn to ride the funvee! You gotta go be Stank.”_

_“Can’t…can’t be that anymore. Not without you.”_

_“Yes you can. In fact, you’re doomed to be Stank forever! Sorry but that will never not be funny,” he laughed. “Now shoo, I’ve still got a bet to win, baby!”_

_“The…the what?”_

_“The bet! About you and Saucy Supreme licking each other’s faces off any day now! Better be any day now because I swear if you let Wong win any of the bets, I will find a way to get out of here just to haunt your ass for that! Can’t let him win, he’s too smug about it. Me and Happy both made a bet that he will lose all his bets so…chop chop, Tones! Can’t let a brother down now.”_

_“You did…what?!”_

 

There they were, in a fleeting moment created within the Soul world’s dimension and the last thing out of his best friend’s mouth he would ever get to hear wasn’t a ‘goodbye’ or ‘take care’, not even something Rhodey-style like ‘see ya later, waaaaay later though or else…’ or ‘don’t open the nightstand’s drawer, just blow the whole thing up’. Instead he said:

_“You can be happy with him, Tones. Just let yourself be happy. Or else…”_

Or maybe that’s exactly what he should have expected to hear from him. And he wants to listen to him, he really does. But…

“He lied to me,” Tony whispers.

“Strange? About what?”

“About Rhodey. About everything. He saw it…he _knew_ this would happen. No, it’s worse! There were other ways to defeat Thanos, there were _more_ possibilities but he chose this one. _He_ did this! And had the nerve, the _audacity_ to tell me ‘I’m sorry, Tony, there was no other way’! No other way, my ass!”

Bruce nods, his hand gently squeezing his forearm. “You’re sick and tired of people you trust lying to you…understandable. But I highly doubt he _wanted_ to lie to you. And I doubt even more that he made that decision easily – both to lie to you and choosing this turn of events above the rest. Personally, I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to watch…how many possible outcomes was it? Millions? And we lost most of them, almost all of them. If us winning wasn’t at all very pretty then just how awful the losing must have been? I don’t even want to know and he not only knows but most likely remembers _every single one_. He’s got eidetic memory if I remember that googled portfolio correctly so…just imagining being in his shoes? On Titan or now? Makes me want to crawl up into a dark abandoned corner somewhere and cry.”

Tony just stares at him, any fight still left in him evaporating. “He lied to me,” he repeats, even quieter than before.

“Yes. And it’s killing him, _every day_. He definitely looks the part…unlike Rogers, he looks like he’s been enjoying himself in exile the whole time. His account of Siberia wasn’t exactly apologetic either. But I don’t have to tell you this, Tony. You know. Just like you know that if Strange told you a single word about what he had seen in his vision on Titan, you would have none of it. You would try your best to avoid it and who knows how bad things would have gotten as a result. They wouldn’t have gotten better, that’s for sure…or he _would_ have told you.”

Wiping his face with his sleeve, he wheels away from Bruce, putting a little distance between them. Bruce is right. Of course he’s right and of course Tony knows but… _but_. There should be a but in there somewhere. _But_ there isn’t.

Tony figured out Stephen’s scheme before he and Nebula even left Titan. He figured they had to lose in order to win and Tony had to survive the initial battle. For the following weeks during which he restlessly worked towards defeating Thanos, his mind blissfully forgot the subtle things Stephen had said and done.

The devastation that never left his face after the vision. The instant apologies. The looks. Him leaving the Cloak behind for Tony…knowing he would need it. For comfort if for nothing else. _Twice_.

If Tony wasn’t so busy avenging everything and everyone, he could have easily seen through it all immediately and know that however it is they’re supposed to win, it’s going to be _bad_. Distracted by his Thanos-defeating frenzy, he just didn’t have the time to realize the big bad hanging in the air of this new reality until it was too late.

Too late for him to prepare and deal with it. Too late to _think about it_. 

It’s like Siberia all over again. Not in the sense Bruce and everybody else seems to think.

If Tony found out about December 16, 1991 sooner than he did…if he didn’t have to watch his parents being murdered on top of realizing Rogers was a hypocritical, lying son of a bitch…Zemo would be still sitting in that bunker wondering where he went wrong with his master plan of turning them against each other.

Contrary to what Rogers and apparently half of the former Avengers believe, Tony doesn’t blame Barnes at all – he blames HYDRA. It’s the logical conclusion to make and it’s the truth. Making logical conclusions in the middle of his brain short-circuiting is difficult though. Hence they fought each other and nothing would ever be the same ever again, no matter how many regrets there are on both sides.

And just like back then, Tony didn’t have the time to _think_ the moment he woke up after Thanos had been defeated. He had to act first and then everything came crashing down on him. On _them_. So before he could understand everything that happened, before he could come to terms with it and really think it through…he had to run his mouth and push Stephen away the second he appeared even though he’s the one who stayed with him the entire time.

Not just while he slept, he was there for him the second everyone came back to life, he was there in the final battle, he was there when Tony destroyed the gauntlet and nearly burnt his entire arm off…and through the Cloak, he was there the whole time. And along with him, the horribly broken and beaten expression that at one point mirrored Tony’s own.

Still, he pushed the man away. _Hence they fought and nothing would ever be the same ever again, no matter the regrets_.

This is what scares Tony the most these days.

It’s been months now…since then. And he had all the time in the world to think and to come to terms with everything…kind of…and at the end of the day, after facing alien armies, crazy robots and a Mad Titan, what scares him the most is that he once again doomed another relationship to fail.

Him and Rogers weren’t much of a relationship to begin with, but him and Stephen…they had a good thing going. Didn’t they? It wasn’t even that long ago that they were low-key dating and _loving_ it. Wanting _more_ of it.

Then BOOM Thanos and BOOM Thanos again…and Tony has no idea how to rise from these kinds of ashes.

Being really bad at _talking_ isn’t helping Tony’s case at all and the ball is on Tony’s side of the playground – Stephen made sure it would be. As if not to pry and not to push, he just left him in charge of the next move.

He has to take the initiative or nobody else will and they will forever be stuck in this state of limbo – not talking, avoiding each other the best they can, no more meetings in the Sanctum or the lab, no more hanging out with the kids, no more protecting the Earth together like the badass motherfuckers they are, no more…just…no more anything.

 _Bruce is right_. If they don’t talk and soon, it’s only going to get worse and hell, tomorrow might be too late to salvage what’s left of their friendship. Let alone anything else.

That absolutely won’t do.

“Please tell me this suddenly extremely determined expression of yours is not you about to stubbornly conti - ” Bruce pauses when Tony hauls himself up from the chair and within two seconds manages to walk up to him and plant an inappropriately loud smooch on his cheek, “ – nue the sulking down here all day long,” he finishes quickly with a grimace. “Uhm…what w - ”

“You’re a great listener, Brucie-bear, I rest my case. Although I’m pretty sure _you_ did most of the talking here. Oh well. I’m a great listener too so…can you finish up this project for me while I go embarrass myself in front of a wizard or two? Don’t wait up,” Tony pats him on a shoulder and is half-way across the lab before Bruce comes up with any sort of a reply.

“Wow. Okay! I’ll uh…I’ll hold the fort. Oh and use that kiss move, that’s going to work like _magic_!”

Tony doesn’t have it in him to groan or berate the good doctor about his little quip. After all, there’s another good doctor to confront and time waits for no one. Not even for the two former wielders of the Time stone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> Did I say weekend? I did, didn't I? Welp, leave it to a good old-fashioned emergency at work and I'm just now getting home and realizing this isn't posted yet :'D So, here we go without much further talkin'! <3
> 
> Thank you all for you kudos and comments, I'll go through them and get back to you as soon I catch some zZz's and restart my loopy brain! ;D

“It’s haunted, isn’t it?” Mrs. Huston laments with a deep sigh. “I knew it. I knew it the second we moved in. The sounds, the vase breaking, the cupboards opening and all of it happening at night? Couldn’t have been a coincidence, I’m telling you.”

Stephen should have dropped Wong into a mirror dimension without his sling ring and never look back.

It’s not like he could have killed the sorcerer – even the universe didn’t have the guts to kill him, so it’s likely not even possible to do it.  

Getting used to Wong’s silent treatment – which includes very deadly glares – is one thing. Getting used to Wong sending him on the worst possible magic-related tasks? That’s unacceptable.

“ _It is our duty to assist mankind in dealing with magical occurrences_.”

That’s what he told him when Stephen voiced his doubts about the importance of investigating Peruvian rumors of vampires killing sheep. So Stephen went to Peru and naturally found a group of teenage assholes that were testing air rifles on animals.

No vampires. As if.

So months later and dozens of ridiculous ‘magical’ emergencies later, he’s here in Essex with this lovely elderly couple in this lovely Victorian house which Mrs. Huston firmly believes to be haunted. By vicious, cupboard-opening, vase-breaking ghostly demons. Truly a magical mystery.

Only he doesn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to get to the bottom of this one. He doesn’t have to be the Sorcerer Supreme either. One look at her husband of fifty years whenever she mentions the supposed paranormal activity is proof enough that there’s nothing ghostly about this. _As if_.

Mr. Huston is probably guilty of what many love to do – go on secret midnight snack hunts to the kitchen. Thus the noises and the opened cupboards he forgets to close during his search for goodies and the broken vase he must have knocked down by mistake on his way back upstairs. _In all that darkness_.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Huston. I have a reason to believe whatever…paranormal being haunted this place is now gone and won’t cause you any further trouble,” he tells the lady, giving her husband a pointed look to which he frantically nods.

“Oh, thank you ever so much, Doctor!”

“No need to thank me, I’m certain the being was more scared of your wrath than mine,” he grins a little at Mr. Huston’s constipated look and stands up to leave.

“Would you like some more tea?”

“Thank you, but no. Duty calls,” he politely excuses himself and before the good lady can bait him further with her homemade cookies, he bids them goodbye and portals back to the Sanctum. “Well, this was yet another complete waste of time,” Stephen glares at Wong, comfortably sitting on the sofa.

“How so?” Wong asks, serious as ever.

“Do you really need to ask?”

Wong just shrugs, the mischievous glint in his eyes giving him away though.

“I’ll be in the library,” he shakes his head, stomping up the stairs only narrowly avoiding the gaping hole made by the Hulk that is yet to be repaired.

“You’ve got a client. By the relics upstairs.”

“A what now?!” he whirls around. “What are we, doing consultations now?!”

“We are when dangerous relics are involved and he brought one of the most dangerous ones I’ve seen in a while.”

“Great, just what we needed, more dangerous stuff to take care of. I’ll handle it,” he sighs and reluctantly goes all the way up to the relic hall. Better not be another elaborate prank, because he swears to Merlin’s beard if the dangerous relic is just some souvenir somebody brought from the holidays or a god damn cursed painting, he will lock himself up in Kamar-Taj, possibly forever.

Wong wasn’t exaggerating this time it seems, because the moment he enters the hall, he’s _attacked_ by what he presumes is the relic.

Red, soft and cuddly. Suspiciously looking like _the Cloak_.

“Wh – hey! Okay, alright…stop it, Weirdo. It’s great to see you too but you don’t have to go all huggy on me now.”

He blames his momentary inability to recognize the apparel on the fact that the last time he’s seen it it’s been dirty, ripped up and riddled with holes. Now the Cloak looks almost in as perfect condition as it’s been before…before everything. He can only spot where the rip has been masterfully sewn back together and the holes patched up when he inspects it from way up close.  

Someone did an excellent job of making the Cloak presentable again, almost surgically excellent. Stephen was ready to dig through some books and find a spell that would do that for him – since sewing anything back together would be next to impossible for him now.

About as impossible as being ready to come face to face with Tony after months of being carefully avoided by him.

In his defense, being tackled by the Cloak and distracted by his state of repair, Stephen’s brain didn’t have the chance to compute the connection – if the Cloak is here then Tony must have brought it.

Naturally, there the man is, emerging from around the corner with the goblet relic in hand, wearing a ‘Stank Industries’ tee and watching the two of them with an unreadable expression.

Of fucking course Tony would be Wong’s mysterious client and after months of being trolled by the sorcerer, Stephen didn’t even bring himself to be suspicious about it. He is so going to kill him now.

Then again, if Wong casually told him that Tony’s upstairs, Stephen would probably panic himself into another dimension before ever ascending the stairs.

Tony blinks a couple times, tilting his head with apparent interest as the Cloak makes home around Stephen’s shoulders again after oh so long. “Hm,” he shrugs and without a single care in the world, he throws the goblet behind him where the relic bounces off the floor and rolls away.

Stephen still doesn’t know what the thing does so, whatever. He’s way too deep into the onset of panic to really give a damn about it anyway, too busy mentally preparing for all the awful possible outcomes of the moments ahead. There oughta be many of those. He’s actually surprised Tony didn’t open this meeting by throwing the goblet _at him_.

“I don’t want a divorce,” Tony blurts out and it takes Stephen a minute to process the sentence.

“What?” he shakes his head, willing his brain to cooperate.

“A divorce. Don’t want it. It _sucks_. Like, big time,” Tony continues, clasping his hands in front of him in a strangely awkward way. “Peter alternating between the Compound and the Sanctum on weekends, that won’t do. And the Cloak gets all pouty if he doesn’t get to annoy you in a long time so that won’t do either. So…can we not?”

It’s Stephen’s turn to blink, watching Tony with wide eyes. “You…you don’t want a divorce,” he repeats aloud, hoping it might help his brain understand. Without much luck.

“Or…whatever it is we’re in the middle of. Feels like a divorce. Not that I’d know. I don’t know much these days…but I know I don’t want to continue _this_.”

Stephen perks up a bit at that and lets the fidgety Cloak finally settle and relax around his shoulders, the weight almost feeling alien after so long without it. “And by _this_ you mean…?”

“ _This_. The ominous _this_ between us! I…don’t make me put it into words, I’m already struggling with full sentences as it is,” he sighs, his posture slumping where he stands. “I don’t wanna fight anymore.”

“Karen? Play Échame la culpa!”

Stephen shares a frown with Tony and they both snap their gaze upward, where a certain teenage spider hero is hanging upside down off the ceiling, suit and everything.

“Oops. Karen? Invisibility. Quick.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so, spiderling,” Tony recovers first, cringing at the song that starts blasting off the spidey suit. “Karen? Bring him down here.”

“Wha-! Mr. Stark!” Peter whines, when the suit cuts off the music _and_ the web he’s hanging onto the ceiling with, making him drop down.

“Don’t _Mr. Stark_ me, Peter! Aren’t you supposed to be, I don’t know…studying for exams? May was pretty clear about the no superheroing before first exams are over policy. But I can give her a call and make sure th-“

“Nononono! I remember! Besides, I’m not superheroing or anything, Wong just messaged me that you’re here so I figured the suit would be faster than taking the train!” Peter blurts out, the suit’s mask slipping off.

“Oh for fu…,” Tony mumbles and stomps around Stephen to the staircase. “Wong! You’re a dead man, I hope you know that!” he yells down into the silence. “Kid, we’re kinda in the middle of something here, so why don’t you go…grab ice-cream or go berate Ned about him breaking the Avengers Compound lego model.”

“But I…wait… _he broke it_?!” Peter gapes at Tony in horror. “ _Already_?!”

“Yup.”

Peter stares for a moment longer before shaking his head. “It’s fine. We’ll fix it later. I’m not going anywhere,” he pouts, folding his arms. “Not until you make up.”

“Excuse m - ” Stephen starts but Tony is suddenly back with the two of them, trying to melt the kid’s pout with a glare.

“We were working on that before you interrupted with another meme!”

“It’s not a meme…yet.”

“Uhuh. Well, you completely disrupted the mood. I’m not feeling like making up anymore,” he deadpans, but Stephen catches onto the little twitch of his eyes, quickly followed by one on his lips as he’s trying to keep a serious face.

Peter pales, widening his eyes. “Nonononono!” he blurts out again. “Come on! You don’t wanna fight anymore! Right? You said it! I’ll…I won’t be visiting _anyone_ on the weekends then!” he threatens, the pout hardening into a determined stare.

Tony raises his eyebrows, exchanging a quick look with Stephen. “Oh really? Resorting to emotional extortion, huh? You’ve been spending too much time with Harley, the kid’s a bad influence.”

“Ugh!” Peter sighs, covering his face in his hands. “It was worth a try. I knew it doesn’t work for him either,” he mumbles.

“Peter,” Stephen tries placating the boy, but Peter Parker is a strong and independent adolescent spider and won’t have any of it.

“No! Just…no!” he folds his arms again and gives both of them a hard look. “It’s been going on for too long! And I know you two! You’ll try to talk but you won’t find the words so you’ll give up and leave it for later and then what?! You’re capable of dragging it on for ages! So if you wanna go on fighting then…then I’ll start fighting too! You think I’m above throwing a teenage tantrum? Try me!”

“It’s not that simple, Peter.”

“Of course it is, Doctor Strange!” he bursts out and if Stephen didn’t believe the kid is being serious before, he sure does now that he called him by his actual name. Might in fact be the first time ever. “It’s super simple! You’re sorry for keeping big secrets from Mr. Stark, like really _really_ sorry! And _you_ are sorry for taking so long to stop being mad at Doctor Strange about it! See? Simple. Everyone is sorry so can you just get to the forgiveness part, hug it out and take me out to dinner, there’s so much we gotta catch up on! And by _we_ I mean just you two, I’m sure something will conveniently ruin my plans to go with you. _Again_.”

Stephen can only stare at the teen for the longest time. And judging by the sudden silence, Tony isn’t quite finding the words either.   

Getting no reply, Peter’s beaming face turns uncertain again. “Please?”

Tony takes an abrupt breath and turns to Stephen. “Well, you heard the kid. It’s super simple.”

“Tony, I’m so – “

“You’re sorry, I’m sorry…really, _really_ sorry…”

“There’s nothi - ”

“Yes! Yes there is, Peter said so. And he’s right. And…”

“And you have every right to be mad at me.”

Tony nods, looking down. “Maybe. But I have it from two very good sources that I’d be a fool to continue on like this.”

“Yes. Yes, you would,” Peter beams at Tony, who rolls his eyes, a tiny smile sneaking onto his lips.

“Got it from three people now so there’s no doubt about it.”

Stephen lets out a breath that he’s probably been holding since the moment he’s spotted Tony up here, judging from the burn it sends through his lungs on its way out. Or maybe that’s just an onset of a stroke, because his heart positively beats like a sped up techno track.

Leave it to the kid to instantly melt almost half a year worth of tension in this room. Considering it took Peter weeks to even start talking in more than one-word sentences after the ordeal, it’s definitely a relief to see him back in his element.

“Are you okay in there?” Tony asks him, that smile he’s missed so much now firmly lighting up his face as he looks at him.

“Me? Am I…are _you_?” he blurts out a little high-pitched for his own liking, but he’ll blame it on the raging panic slash absolute happiness currently coursing through him.

Tony shrugs – an answer as close to a ‘no’ anyone will ever get out of him – the smile stays on though. Small and sad but it’s there. “I’m starving is what I am. Did someone say dinner? I’m in!”

“Yisss!” Peter flails his hands in victory. “But the hug comes first. What?” he frowns when they both gape at him. “I did say this part involves hugging so go on while I pretend to receive important messages on my phone that will serve as well-constructed alibi for me leaving in a bit,” he states while already checking his phone, seemingly not paying attention to them anymore.

Tony opens his mouth to retort but decides against it a second later, his still tense posture deflating some as he gives the kid a fond look. “I’m proud of you,” he says eventually, ruffling the now stunned teen’s hair.

And if Stephen matches Peter’s expression almost perfectly when Tony just sighs and with a purposeful step forward comes in to actually hug him, well…they are both too caught off-guard to really mind.

Or in Peter’s case, too caught off-guard to quickly snap a photo of Stephen’s frozen face that he’d turn into a meme by tomorrow. The kid’s nothing if not opportunistic.

He’s so out of it, that he just stands there like a statue. The only one making a move is the Cloak, wrapping around Tony just as he rests his chin on Stephen’s shoulder, arms encircling his waist. It brings back a flash of a memory of the two of them…or three of them hugging in the darkness of the Sanctum’s kitchen after the Christmas gnome fiasco.

That’s why it feels so familiar, because the circumstances and the hug…they’re the same in a way. Emotions on the all-time high, lots of hurt – physical and not, Stephen messing up, Tony forgiving him…and then the hug was everything they needed. Comforting. Life-affirming. Warm.

Everything they still need, now more than ever. Everything a part of Stephen’s mind still believes to be undeserving of - now more than ever.

“I don’t blame you,” Tony whispers into the crook of his neck, almost erasing the depreciating thought from Stephen’s mind.

“You should,” he responds just as quietly, voice wavering.

“But I don’t. Deal with it, beer witch.”

That startles out a broken chuckle out of him. God damn Thor.

“’S not your fault,” Tony adds and Stephen finally loses his inner battle and with a quiet sniffle he lets his arms envelop Tony’s smaller frame and hold him close, as close as he dares, while the tears sprung free down his face.

“I’m sorry,” he blurts out between sobs, not even sure what he’s apologizing for anymore. Titan, Voromir, everything that happened after that, him crying into Tony’s hair right now…the list could go on forever.

“Rhodey’s not,” comes Tony’s reply after about the twentieth ‘I’m sorry’. “Son of a bitch is partying hard in the Soul world right now, drinks and dubstep and everything,” he laugh a little, his own tears audible in it. “He’s not sorry for saving half of the universe, so you better not be sorry either.”

Stephen has nothing to say to that – so he doesn’t, instead tightening his hold and crying a little harder. No more _sorry’s_ falling off of his tongue.

Tony pats the Cloak and half of the apparel is suddenly on the move, grabbing the fondly smiling teen.

“Wha-!” Peter yelps as the Cloak yanks him towards them. “Oh. Okay,” he shrugs and wriggles into the hug, arms holding onto both Stephen and Tony.

Stephen is beyond trying to sort out through the mess of emotions right now, so he just goes with it. Because for the first time in months he’s feeling something other than dread or loss. This – him, Tony and Peter; this feels oddly…right. _Complete_.

It’s everything he feared he’d lost. Yet here they are. Because Tony somehow found it in his heart to forgive him and because this meddling teen just never gives up.

Ultimately, it’s all thanks to Rhodey. Half of the universe owes the man its life, but it doesn’t compare to the debt Stephen owes him, with no chance or hope to ever repay it. There’s just one thing he can do, something he will always do and would do no matter how things turned out.

Keep Tony safe. And maybe even keep him happy, if he lets him. That, he can do.

“Alright…so…,” Peter sighs and slips away from them. “Pizza? I’m actually kinda starving but I already texted Ned that I’m coming to save the Compound and now I’m - ”

“Say no more,” Tony pulls away, grinning. “You and your bottomless stomach is coming along, pizza it is! Tell Ned to join us, bring that thing over…I bet we can get it fixed before the pizza arrives. Because we’re just _that_ good.”

“That’s a great idea! Can you portal us, Doctor Wizard?! The thing’s huge!”

“Not to mention transporting it on foot for too long would just give Ned another opportunity to break it some more,” Tony nods, winking at Stephen.

“We do want the Compound in one piece, of course,” Stephen rolls his eyes, fishing for the sling ring in his pocket.

“Preferably…uhm. What…in the hell…are you wearing?” Tony stares at Peter as he lets the suit fold away, revealing completely normal jeans but not so normal shirt.

“Oh. Crap, uhm. I’ll keep the suit on. Karen?”

“Too late, spiderkid,” Tony squints at the colorful tee, with a rainbow that says ‘Iron Man hearts Sorcerer Supreme’. “Let me guess. Rhodey made that.”

“Yeah,” Peter breathes out and nods. “A couple of those…and some hoodies, too.”

“Hoodies, huh? We’ll be talking about that later. Let’s go, pizza time.”

Stephen clears his throat, peeling his eyes away from the shirt that in a way compliments Tony’s in the jest behind it and fires up the portal.

Half-way through dinner, Stephen almost feels like he’s back to before the war with Thanos. Him, Tony, the kids, pizza, laughter, banter…just a typical night of the week.

It’s so much more this time. A promise of tomorrow. A sign, that not all is lost. A proof, that Thanos might have truly lost after all.

Things will never go back to what they were before, but with time they will get better. For all of them.

One pizza night at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, it's date time! ^^ It's about a damn time, too :D
> 
> Obviously, the series is drawing closer and closer to the end so now is your best chance to persuade me fluff is the way to go from here (and end on the note of)...because my evil angsty alter-ego never sleeps ;D

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter will bring us back home to Stephen's POV and the Sanctum ^^ Will be posting it on the weekend! <3


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